In ‘Landfill Harmonic,’ young musicians turn trash into instrumental art

One man’s trash is another’s man’s trumpet.

In a remote dump near the Paraguayan capital of Asunción, a determined group of young musicians has been making music with instruments crafted from garbage. “Landfill Harmonic,” a documentary about the Recycled Orchestra of Cateura, screens Sunday at AFI Fest in Los Angeles, and among the film’s stars are the instruments themselves, handmade objects of art that give voice to the underprivileged children.

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The instruments include a saxophone cobbled together from keys, bottle caps and buttons; guitars made from packing crates; violins and drums composed of tin cans and plastic pipes; and flutes made with water pipes and spoons.

It’s an orchestra of assemblage art. As the group’s director, Favio Chávez, says: “The world sends us garbage … we send back music.”